The wait was so long that after it ended, Donald Driver still doesn’t know exactly how to feel.
He’s been with the Packers for 12 years and emerged from the obscurity of being a seventh-round draft pick out of Alcorn State to become the all-time leading receiver in Green Bay franchise history. That’s quite an achievement, considering the breadth of history of this particular franchise.
There’s not much Driver hadn’t done in his career but he never made it to a Super Bowl until this year, when the Packers finally cashed the ticket he’s been holding for so very long. They will face the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV on Feb. 7 in Dallas and for the first time Driver will be part of the big game.
“It hasn’t hit me yet,” Driver said yesterday, “but I know it will hit me soon that now I have the opportunity to go to the dance. The biggest thing for me now is to put that ring on my finger and be part of my legacy that I’ve been to the Super Bowl and I’ve also won the Super Bowl.”
The dance has always gone on without him but not this time. Driver turns 36 four days before the Super Bowl and there are plenty of young, talented receivers on the roster itching to get ahead of him on line and haul in all those pinpoint passes from Aaron Rodgers.
No one knows for sure how much time Driver has left, but it can’t be very long, making this particular achievement one that came just in time.
“The ultimate goal for the legacy everybody talks about is to get that Super Bowl ring,” Driver said. “If you get that, then everything, you’ve accomplished everything. I think you kind of have everything in order. Make the team, Pro Bowls, Super Bowl, that’s it. Then that’s like the final chapter of your book.”
There may not have been an outwardly more excited Packers player this past Sunday night in the visitors’ locker room at Soldier Field. Driver’s contributions to the 21-14 victory over the Bears in the NFC title game were minimal — one catch for nine yards — and his most impactful play hurt, when a low pass from Rodgers deflected off Driver’s shoe and into the hands of Bears linebacker Lance Briggs for an interception.
During the season, Driver caught only 51 passes for 565 yards, his lowest output since 2001. In a six-year span from 2004-09, Driver averaged 81 receptions as Brett Favre’s favorite target. Rodgers quickly developed a similar chemistry with Driver, who for years has been known as one of the toughest receivers in the league, willing and able to make the difficult grabs across the middle.
Teammates were openly thrilled to be able to help deliver Driver to his first Super Bowl. The last time the Packers were there was January of 1998, a year before Driver arrived.
Rodgers said it’s been “a driving force” to get Driver and other veterans Charles Woodson and Chad Clifton this far.
“I don’t know if you get any doubt,” Driver said. “I think you get to a point where it’s hard to get here, and once you get in, then you just say, ‘Hey, I’ve got to win it all.’
“This is what we all dreamed of as kids. And to get here, you just can’t get there and then say, ‘OK, we can lose it.’ You’ve got to win it all. That’s what our young guys know that these veteran guys, we want to win it. And our young guys believe that now. They know exactly what we want, they want. And that is to put that ring on our finger at the end of the game.”
